The Power Within

Hypnosis is one of the most potent and powerful tools for changing your mind, for priming your mind for success, and for learning to plant your own suggestions/seeds for positive growth, in business and in personal life.

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Why self hypnosis? Simply stated, hypnosis is one of the most potent and powerful tools for changing your mind, for priming your mind for success, and for learning to plant your own suggestions/seeds for positive growth. For changing in ways you desire for yourself. Whether it be more motivation to finish that project, or a desire to let go of a non-useful habit, or aquire new skills and confidence, or some other lifestyle or health self improvement, hypnosis is a well-worn path. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis have been a part of the human experience for thousands of years.

With hypnosis, we bypass that critical part of your mind, the chatty, thinking, limited, linear, conscious part of your mind. And we access the power within you, your unconscious, and that IS where the power resides, the creative, expansive, dreaming, intuitive, problem-solving part of your mind. When you change your focus, move your attention from a problem to where the problem is not, you find your strengths and open yourself to infinite possibilities. You find solutions, and change.

Here's part one of a simple process to do that. There are many avenues into hypnosis. Relaxation is a very well known one, but certainly not necessary, and not the only avenue. However, it's the one we'll focus on today. When you relax your body, the mind will follow. It is this mental relaxation which allows access to your power.

Here's a simple "progressive relaxation" method into hypnosis, as it's known. It's also called "a body scan." Note: do not practice this while driving or operating any machinery as this will take you to a state of deep relaxation. Lie down on your bed comfortably when you have some time to focus on yourself, or a nice chair perhaps. Focus all your attention on one body part. You may begin with the top of your head or the tips of your toes. Or even just bounce around. Just tell yourself that you are relaxing a particular part of your body. And then do so. Just let the body part get loose and limp, relaxed, all tension and stress evaporating. "I'm focusing my attention now on my right arm. I'm connecting with my right arm, and my right arm is relaxing now. Relaxing. Relaxing. I feel the sensations in my right arm, as it becomes heavy relaxed, loose and limp, just like a wet dishrag. Relaxing." Move from body part to body part, relaxing your muscles. As you do this you will find your mind drifting as well. Allow it. In just a few moments, and sooner with practice, you'll be in a wonderful, open state of mind, where suggestions can take deep, deep root in you and problems can dissolve.

Now, we'll put this state of mind together with some simple self-suggestion formats, and a step-by-step process to effect change.

You may give yourself particular instructions such as duration and how you'd like to feel when you're done: "I'm accessing this state of mind for 20 minutes, at which time I'll awake alert and refreshed, feeling simply wonderful." Your unconscious mind knows what time it is and can track this for you. Your unconscious mind is the ultimate good guy, the all powerful superhero, and you can trust it to protect you as it's done all your life. If something urgent needs your attention while in hypnosis, you will awake instantly and be able to deal with it in an alert manner.

Now comes information on language for crafting self suggestions plus a simple "how to put it all together" process from soup to nuts for your self-hypnosis session. Suggestions are the words or sentences you feed yourself for change. You might think of them as affirmations, only much more sensory based. Plus, unlike simple affirmations, these suggestions sink DEEP into your unconscious mind as you access the trance state. And that's where change happens.

A few simple ideas: suggestions may be as simple as a single sentence: "My _________ is improving every day." or "I am going into trance for the purpose of allowing my unconscious mind to make all the adjustments necessary and appropriate for me to achieve ______________. Or, you may choose to create several paragraphs of text on your own.

You want to avoid negative words such as "no," "not," "never." Your unconscious does not process these negative words in the way you'd expect. Don't think of a pink elephant! What just happened? You did, didn't you? You thought of a pink elephant. If you suggest to yourself: "I will not eat a lot of food," you unconscious mind hears "I will eat a lot of food." Keep the wording positive!

Use the present tense. "Going to" never happens. Make it now! Make it current, in the moment. "I go to the gym and exercise three times a week" vs. "I'm going to go to the gym and exercise three times a week." (some day)

Use first person language. "I."

Use simple language, as though you're talking to a child.

Also, your unconscious mind is very literal, and likes creative, exciting, descriptive, emotional words. Describe the changes you want, as though some nice fairy has come along and waved a magic wand and you already have it! Supply lots of details. How does it look, feel, sound, taste, etc.? When do you want it by?

Now that you have your suggestions, here's an easy way to put it all together. Write out your suggestions on a paper or card. Ok, you're ready to enter trance. Give yourself a time limit; it can be as little as 5 minutes or longer. I like 20 minutes. Tell yourself that you'll emerge from trance at the end of that time and then tell yourself how you'd like to feel when you emerge from trance: relaxed, refreshed, energized, and so on.

Read your suggestions to yourself three times very slowly, and concentrate on each word. Then set the paper down, settle your body down, close your eyes, and use your self-hypnotic induction as outlined last time. Allow your mind to drift. You don't have to consciously think of your suggestions, just relax and go with whatever thoughts enter your mind. It's all good! Stay relaxed! And that's it!

I suggest you do this two times a day, right after you wake up in the morning, and right before bed, for a period of 21 days. Focus on just one suggestion at a time.

Give it a go, and experience for yourself this connection with your power within. You'll find it a terrifically pleasant experience. And notice the positive changes materializing in your life!

You are now your own powerful self-hypnotist! This technique is great for motivation, weight loss, stop smoking, fingernail biting, improving study habits, and many, many more things. If you are dealing with deep seated, powerful emotional problems with unconscious causes, it may be more advisable to have a professional hypnotherapist guide you in a process of transformation. Either way, you'll find that hypnosis is a terrific and effective tool for self enhancement and creating the life you desire. Enjoy!